Songbirds 3e

"Moon's haunted."

Songbirds 3e is a tabletop roleplaying game about undeath, supernatural powers, and the blue dreams of the moon. In the game, you create a strange survivor of the world who was chosen (or cursed) by Death. Spirits aren't able to pass on to the afterlife and grow monstrous with each passing day. You know the songs to send them on. You have the abilities that help you find them. You are the canary in the coal mine.

This is the third edition of the legendary game that started as a hack of Into the Odd and has grown into its own thing. It's everything that I want in a dungeon crawler and what I use to run my home games with. It has several, smaller magic systems, some open-ended potions and psychic powers, body-modifications for when a limb is inevitably cut off, and all the little quirks of eldritch fantasy that I enjoy. It's very much a passion project.

Click here for my pinterest board of setting inspiration.

"I really like how much of this is just... cool shit." - Emma Levin

"First of all, the layout fucks. This is gorgeous. Secondly, this game lives and breathes in a weird, dangerous, uncomfortable world seething with sex, drugs and violence. No death, no love, just survivors in a hollow and liminal place. "Communist" is a language. The lore is rich as butter and the rules draw from that story like a well. Frankly it's gorgeous and it makes me sad. 5 stars, I can't wait to play it." - ShoutingCrow

"this is a GOTY contender. wowowow. i'm blown away." - Thursday Garreau

"Songbirds 3 is like coming home to a town you only half-remember, one that's grown sprawling and mysterious without you. [...] And god, does this game beg to be played: there are so many deftly-woven hooks, tantalizing loose ends, and sly little implications of the world beyond the page, a setting-without-a-setting that feels fresher and more exciting than anything I've read in recent memory." - gwencie (full review here!)

"Masterclass of Layout and game design." - Yuki

"all this to say: i certainly did not expect to open this book and feel confident calling it my GOTY. it's beautiful. it's elegant. i would call it art. it's charmed the pants off me[...]" - thursday garreau

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These are the fantasy and sci-fi worlds that inspired the setting for Songbirds.

• Mononoke, Nakamura
• Psychonauts, Double Fine
• Dark Souls, From Software
• Mushishi, Urushibara
• Ico, Team Ico
• Blame!, Nihei

These are the systems (both TTRPGs and video games) that have inspired my understanding of dungeon crawlers and adventure games. You'll find their DNA and workings within.

• Into the Odd, McDowall
• Wonder & Wickedness, Strejcek
• Whitehack, Mehrstam
• kill puppies for satan, Baker
• Disco Elysium, ZA/UM
• Fallout New Vegas, Obsidian
• Persona 5, Atlus
• Blades in the Dark, Harper
• Red Giant, Burns
• bastards., Anderson

I'm a queer neurodivergent designer in the U.S. I've been a full time game designer/writer for three years now. I've written stuff like .dungeon, My Body is a Cage, and Lilancholy. Songbirds 3e continues with my obsessions. 

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